The Studio

Impasse is one of those words that I know to see. Apparently, in almost 29 years, though, it’s not one that I’ve said often out loud, because when I trotted it out last week– “The studio has reached an im-pass-ay”– I learned that it’s a two syllable word, just like it looks. Im-pass. Who knew?

I love that kind of thing. There’s a hysterical episode of This American Life all about childhood logic errors that are carried into adulthood, which I highly recommend if you like to have a podcast on while you work, and Slate published an article recently encouraging people to reach for the vocabulary brass ring in casual conversation.

But, yes, the studio had reached an impasse, in part because of last week’s room painting burnout and in part because of the multitude of function it needed to contain. It needs to be a working space for sewing/knitting/wedding/otherwise crafty projects, it needs to have a closet area and dressing space for my clothes and it needs to hold longer-term and seasonal storage for the rest of our house. Originally, it needed to be a guest room, too, but that was the first concession we made. We really don’t get that many overnight guests, and our air mattress will serve in a pinch. Done.

So the next decision was made to forge ahead without painting. The slate blue walls are not what I envision in my grand vision, but it’s not in any way offensive or distracting, either, and I’d rather do a better job painting the room later and make good use of the space in the meantime.

I’ve posted this picture before, but here’s the semi-horrifying place where this room started. While the other rooms came together, it just became a catchall for the things without a home.

And here’s the space after a very productive evening. It’s a work in progress, and I haven’t even taken the past things off the wall yet, but it’s already so incredibly functional. The drafting table was a Craigslist score a few months back, and the school desk and chair were trash picked last year.

I bought the Expedit a few years ago, and the shelf bracket was leftover from the last version of the room, but I have plans for a shelf and a hanging bar in that spot. Right now, it’s holding my poor, languishing Moneta. As it turns out, it’s hard to keep up with a sew-along when you have to make the room first, but I have hopes to finish up by the end of the week!

And here is the pièce de résistance, the Ivar wall. We purchased about half of the components secondhand from a neighbor, which we used to inform what we purchased new to fill out the wall.

It fits so much! There’s still some reorganization to do, but mostly because I enjoyed diagramming this, here’s a handy map to Ivar’s function:

I want to add shoe racks and some hooks to the space at the right to make use of that, as well. There’s still more to do, but this room finally feels like it’s coming together.

So I want to know, what words have you mispronounced for your whole life? And have you made any headway with a design im-pass-ay recently?

4 comments

I hadn’t said the word colonel out loud for apparently my whole life because I was reading the ingredients of a burger out to my (now ex) husband once and pronounced it as it is spelled and not as “kernel”. He thought it was hilarious and made fun of me for ages. Come on though, its pronounced totally different from how its spelled! Tricky!

I think it was high school when I found out that bass (the instrument) and bass (the fish) were not pronounced the same when I said it wrong to one of my musically inclined friends, who of course laughed at me.